William m



UNITED STATES VILLIAM M. VAN VAGENEN, OF NEWARK,

NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF AND DANIEL F. TOMPKlNS, OF SAME PLAGE.

BOAT-DETACI-IING APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 32,107, dated April 16, 1861.

To all whom tt may concern:

Be it known that l, VILLIAM M.. Van VVAGENEN, of the city of Newark, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented a. new and useful Apparatus for Detaching Small Boats from the Davits or Tackles; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, making a part of this specification, in which- Figure l, is a perspective view, Fig. 2, a top view, and Fig. 3, a perpendicular longitudinal section.

The same letters indicate like parts in all the figures.

The subject of det-aching small boats from their tackles when lowered into the sea is well known to be one, even in ordinary times, of considerable importance; but to effect such detachment with celerity and certainty, in times of shipwreck or peril, is of the highest importance, since many valuable lives 'have been lost by reason of the inability so to do. A marked example of this occurred at the loss of the Steamship Arctic, when a crowded boat load ofwomen and children was pre cipitated into the sea and drowned, by reason of one end of the boat being detached and not the other, when the ship lifting in the sea, the small boat was brought into a perpendicular position and its passengers thrown out.

Many attempts have been made, but with only partial success, to obviate the disad vantages of the ordinary hook and ringthe simplest of such new devices being open to the objection of complication, liability to disarrangement, expense, and want of durability. All these objections l believe my apparatus overcomes.

The nature of my invention consists inthe use of a simple bolt hung in a ring at the bow and stern of the boat; one end of the bolt only being secured and the other being perfectly free to move in any direction. lf

now the free end of the bolt is brought down into a line with the boat and caught and held under any suitable project-ion, the tackle may be hooked on to the bolt and the boat i suspended. To release the tackle, it is now only necessary to force the free end of the bolt from under where it is caught; this is done by means of a lever properly adjusted; thus by the simple moving of a lever the boa-t is instantly released.

ln the figures A, is the tackle bolt hinged at L.

B, is the lever pivoted at K.

C, is a perpendicular bolt, underneath the head of which the free end of A, is caught, and p, Fig. l, is a pin which secures the bolt A, in position when the tackle is hooked on.

The operation is as follows: The free end of the bolt A, being dropped down through the slot s, shown by the dotted line in Fig. 2, lodges upon the slot m, in the lever B.- The lever then being moved in the reverse direction of the arrow, Fig. 2, the free end of the bolt is caught underneath the head of the bolt C, Figs. 1 and 2, and the tackle may then be hooked on. To release the boat it is now only necessary to move the lever B, in the direction of the arrow Fig. 2, when the bolt A will fly up and the hook of the tackle slip off.

Various modifications of this device will l readily suggest themselves, such as dispens ing with the bolt C, and employing an equivalent, such as the under part of the deck. Again instead of moving the bolt A, to release the tackle, the bolt C, or its equivalent may be turned or moved, the position and action of the bolt A, may be also variously changed and modied, all however without affecting the character of the invention.

What l claim as new and of my own invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is- The application and use of the bolt A, as a boat detacher, said bolt being hinged or looped atone end, in combination with, and

VM. M. VAN VAGENEV.

lVitnesses.

JAMES E. MCBETH, SARAH L. ToMPKINs. 

